Who I'm supposed to be
by saviwrites
Summary: AU - Kate finds out who she's supposed to be. (Introduces completely original character)
1. Chapter 1

Jacob Kane looks up as his daughter enters the room, "Kate?" He rises and opens his arms, "What brings you here unannounced?"

"I think it's time," she replies. There is no hug, no smile, no look of adoration.

His smile is tense and he walks around the desk pretending his heart rate didn't increase. Without giving anything away he hits a tiny button on his belt buckle. With a resigned sigh, he leans against his desk and gestures, "I don't suppose you're willing to sit and talk about this, hm?"

A single shake of her head accompanies her answer, "Nope."

"Well, I hope you won't think me rude if I ask you to indulge me with a few moments of banter."

"Knock yourself out."

* * *

When her phone vibrates, the other Miss Kane in Gotham gasps before gritting her teeth, "Shit." Turning on her heel and bracing herself, she exits her office throwing a few words to her secretary, "I'll be back."

The car she recently climbed out of is still sitting at the front of Wayne Industries and she speaks a single word to her driver, "Jake's."

As the door closes behind her, she sends a confirmation reply to Jacob while mumbling, "Stall as long as you can."

* * *

His jaw clenches as he silently begs his cohort to hurry, "Will you at least sit and give me some kind of false sense of control?"

Kate arches an eyebrow and smiles sweetly – too sweetly for it to be genuine, "Sure, father." She approaches the desk chair he vacated and makes a grand to-do about claiming it for herself, "I think this one fits nicely."

"Now, Kate," he smirks, "we both know you're not here to take my job. You never wanted to run a business. Even your cousin new that." He turns to face her and crosses his arms over his chest, "If you had shown any interest at all in being a CEO, Bruce would have given you the helm upon his…"

"Disappearance?" she challenges. No one can really say where Bruce Wayne is, least of all his cousin and uncle.

"Death."

That same eyebrow arches again, "So you believe he's really dead, then?"

"I can't imagine another scenario where he'd go this long without contacting one of us. Or anyone for that matter. Can you?"

"Don't try to distract me." She leans forward with her elbows on the desk, "For my life to truly be mine, I have to know the options. I didn't get myself as straight as possible to have my choices made for me. I know what I want to do with my life but I also know nothing happens in this family without planning in advance." She sits back in the chair and almost purrs, "Am I early, late, or on time for this conversation?"

He studies her face, almost a painful spitting image of her mother, and carefully words his answer, "Your mother and I never sat down and planned your life, Katherine."

"Oh, I know mom wouldn't have done it. I'm talking about the master plan you and Bruce concocted. Tell me," she smiles, "did you at least let Beth and I come out of the womb first?"

The mention of Kate's twin sister almost causes Jake to break his stare. The only thing that keeps him composed is the fact that this is not a conversation he's meant to have with his daughter, "Every parent has hopes and dreams for their children. There's nothing wrong with imagining what your child will grow up to become."

"Don't waste my time with platitudes about hopes and dreams, dad. You know damn well there was a plan and I'm here to finally get you to not only admit that, but to tell me what that plan is. I'm grown now. Tell me what I'm supposed to be."

His back straightens when he feels a pair of eyes on his back. Delivered at last, he sighs, "I can't, Kate."

"Why not?" she challenges, "Or are you not part of the plan, either?" She slams her hand down on the desk, "Why in the hell won't you tell me what my future is supposed to look like? Why is there so damn much secrecy about who and what I'm supposed to be?"

The voice, familiar but not easily identified, comes from the darkest corner of the room behind her father, "Because you're not ready yet."

She strains to make out the figure in the dark and stands in case that would help, "Who the hell is that?" Jake takes this as his cue to leave. It was never a conversation he was meant to partake in and now, with all the parties in place, he's no longer needed. He nods as the passes the woman in the dark.

Even when she steps into the light, her beanie rides so low on her head that her eyes remain concealed, "You know me, Katherine. Though I doubt you remember."

A quick, cold, but fiery chill slides down Kate's spine as the newcomer tips her head up. Any and all moisture disappears from her mouth rendering the woman silent for a moment. She can't help the stare. The eyes facing her seem to burn straight through her body as she can only whisper, "Hayley?"

The blue eyes – far too blue to be natural and far to lovely to be ignored – blink, "I'm genuinely surprised you remember." Tipping her head back a little further, she allows those icy eyes to give Kate a once-over, "You certainly do _look_ grown up," she allows the corner of her mouth to crook into a devilish smile.

Without warning, Kate's back straightens as her body goes up in inexplicable flames, "You look a lot different from the way I remember you." The woman is about her height, slightly heavier but in the best possible way, and her skin is a pale, almost painful white, "But damn," she remarks, "it's a change I can get behind." She leaves the comment laying for a heartbeat and then adds seductively, "I do so enjoy it from behind."

Her eyes are raging blue slits now as she fights a laugh. Once her voice is well under control, Hayley retorts, "That's hilarious. I remember a little gangly girl who almost pissed herself when she got kissed by a girl."

"Well," Kate loosens up now, flirting is something she's fluent in, "that was many, many, _many_ kisses ago."

"Yes, your female conquests are numerous." Reaching up, she pulls her beanie off, revealing a haircut similar to Kate's short cropped hair. The difference, however, sucks the life out of the darker haired woman – Hayley's hair is stark white. She's quite a sight standing there with her white hair, ocean blue eyes, and creamy white skin. Feeling Kate's eyes covering her in almost visible hungry looks, she smiles, "Yes, we're almost complete opposites. Yin and Yang. Black and White."

"Good and Bad?"

"Right and Wrong."

"Good and Better?"

"Which one of those do you believe yourself to be?"

"Better, obviously," Kate moves to lean on the front of her father's desk. Holding her arms out and giving her best cocky grin, she remarks, "Don't tell me you think you've got more abilities than I do, Hayley. I mean, c'mon. Look at me."

"Oh," she smirks and takes a few steps closer while putting her beanie back on to block at least some of the heat coming off Kate's body, "I'm not saying you're not hot." She lets her eyes rake over the woman's body like a lover, "But that doesn't make you better than me." Whispering right beside the woman's ear, she watches the shiver response her words incite, "I can teach you more than that little kiss so many, many years ago. Don't think I didn't hear you whisper my name, baby."

Swallowing the very large lump on her throat, she almost literally pats herself on the back for replying, "When I asked for more, why didn't you obey?"

"Because I don't follow orders, darlin'." Her lips brush Kate's ear and she almost takes the woman when she hears a moan, "I give them."

"Like?"

Her breath tickles Kate's cheek as she answers, "Perhaps you'll get lucky one day. But don't push your luck, soldier."

"I doubt it would take much luck now, Hay."

Cursing the chills under her breath, she still manages to play along, "Oh yeah? You think I'd fall as fast as the ones before me?"

"Technically there were none before you."

"The ones since me, then?"

"No, I don't think you'd melt quite as quickly." Taking the lead now, she changes the subject slightly, "So you're the one they've tasked with telling me my future?"

Their faces are inches apart. Their countenances challenge the other to make the first move. And their hearts match each other in pace and pressure. As Kate bites her bottom lip, Hayley watches. Lifting her eyes from those red lips to the eyes boring a hole in the curve of her neck, she answers, "Something like that." Tipping her head to the side and taking a step back, she adds, "I like my women with a little more edge. You know," she says, pointing to the nose ring in her own nose, "piercings and tattoos are my thing."

Realizing the woman has made the mistake of showing what little she knows of Kate's past, she can't help peeling her jacket off, revealing the take top underneath. "Well then, Hay," she gestures, again, with her arms outstretched, "consider me right up your alley."

"God dammit," she breathes, looking hungrily at the dozens of visible tattoos on Kate's body. "I guess my information wasn't as thorough as I thought."

Feeling very satisfied with herself, Kate crosses her arms over her chest, "Don't feel bad. Of all the things I'd hold against you, this isn't one of them."

"And what, pray tell, would you hold against me?"

It's her turn to relish the upper hand by all but growling, "Any God damn thing you want if you'll tell me what I want to know."

"And that is.."

"What my family has groomed me to be. Who or what am I supposed to be?"

The moment she takes to answer is tense and yet, she is reveling in the tension. When she speaks, the response lands like a brick dropped from a distance to the floor of a cavern, "Batman. With boobs."


	2. Chapter 2

The leather chair wraps around her nicely and she takes a look around the empty apartment. Hayley knows she'll have to answer for how and why she's intruded on Kate's sanctuary. But since the other woman is acting like an overgrown child and refuses to speak to her, the woman figures it's about time they had the coming argument before Kate goes too far and does something – else – stupid.

Kate freezes outside her front door. She can't explain it but there's a feeling creeping into her body telling her someone's inside who wasn't invited. Quickly she looks around and reaches for the blade on her hip. Turning the doorknob, she prepares for a fight with the occupant of her home. With the door fully open, her eyes land on the figure in her lounge chair and she breathes again. A resigned sigh leaves her lips as she closes the door behind her, "I thought I was the queen of unannounced visits."

"Again," she smiles as serenely as possible, "you were wrong."

Throwing her keys on the table inside the door, she asks, "What do you want from me, Hayley?"

A list of items scrolls through her mind before she answers, "That's a damn dangerous question, Kane."

Caught off guard but pleasantly surprised by the innuendo-laden response, Kate manages to smile, "Then I fully expect you to answer it truthfully." Having taken off her jacket, she makes the decision to throw her visitor off a bit by dropping to her knees and crawling across the carpeted floor towards the chair, "Even if that answer makes you seem animalistic, crude, baseless, and wicked." Holding Hayley's eyes, she slips her tongue out of her mouth to almost lick the woman's thigh, "Promise me you'll be honest and as domineering as possible."

Watching the woman, who's clearly drunk, Hayley can't help by flash back to another time Kate Kane was on her knees beside her.

They were about 15 and hiding behind the Japanese screen in Bruce's office. Those same green eyes looked up at her as their bearer asked, "What's it feel like to kiss, Hay?"

Without breathing, she'd leaned over and pressed her lips to Kate's. It was painfully brief but wholly effective. After that first one, Kate's breath rushed out hot against her own lips before they were kissing again. The first few were almost laughably amateur. But as they got more comfortable, she remembers how Kate had buried her hands in her hair and pressed her against the wall. As if shocked by the sound of Hayley's groan, Kate had pulled back suddenly, eyes wide, lips red, and breath coming out in sharp pants, "Oh my God," she'd said as she touched her own lips, "I like girls."

Hayley had only been able to blink as her body slowly awakened to the changes elicited by their kissing. There was a hardness in places, a wetness in another, but mainly an ache and hotness everywhere, "I do too, I guess." She remembers being on the verge of tears at the awareness of those feelings, "Because kissing boys doesn't feel that good!"

Pretty as a picture, the ever-illusive Kate Kane had dipped her head and blushed a shade of pink that made Hayley want to kiss her all over again as she said, "Was it really good? I don't know what I'm doing."

"Oh," it was her turn to blush then, "it was just fine, Kate. You did just fine."

Looking down at the woman kneeling before her now, Hayley feels that same awe and slight sting of tears, "If I have to tell you what to do, Kate, you don't want it enough."

Kate sits back on her heels, smiling softly, "Were you thinking about the first time?"

"Why?"

"Because your face is a little red and your breathing changed," she leans forward, not touching the other woman at all. Her voice drops to a whisper, "And I can damn near smell how much you want me."

Maintaining her composure, Hayley whispers back, "I think you're smelling yourself."

Her voice softens with her expression and she almost whimpers, "Why can't you just admit you want me?"

"You're drunk, Kate."

"No," she shakes her head and crawls into Hayley's lap, "I might have had some alcohol but I'm not drunk." Her lips press against Hayley's cheek before moving to her neck, "I know what I'm doing. Please, just let me have you finally."

She grabs the woman's hands before they can grab her anywhere, "Katherine." When their eyes meet, she searches for some sibilance of the woman Hayley knows is in there, "Katie."

With their fingers intertwined, Kate looks down into those deep, hypnotic eyes. Forgetting she was supposed to convince her visitor that she's not talking out of her ass, she melts, "Those eyes are going to be the death of me but Jesus," she sighs and admits, "it's been years since I've felt as alive as I do now that I can see them again." She swallows hard and throws caution to the wind, "Why did you leave me?"

Somewhere inside her, something melts, "Oh, Kate, I didn't leave you." She tips the woman's face back up to her own, "Bruce sent me away because he was afraid of what we'd end up doing to each other emotionally." She wipes a single tear off Kate's cheek and admits just a little of what she's fought years to deny, "I didn't want to go, but I didn't have a choice." When those green eyes meet hers again, she smiles softly, "I missed you, Katie."

"Oh, Hayley," she throws her arms around the woman's neck, "I thought everyone just left me. Beth. Mom. Maggie. But the one that hurt the most was you." She pulls back and implores, "You promise you didn't want to leave? If you could have stayed you would have?"

"I promise," she replies truthfully. Every day since that last one, Hayley knew the time would come that she'd have to tell Kate Kane the truth of what happened. Being the more mature one has always been an anchor around her neck. She couldn't see Kate on the rare occasion that Bruce let her come home. He was, after all, her guardian since her parents died many, many moons ago. Before his end he'd spent countless hours talking to her about what was expected of her.

Then, as if he read her mind, he spoke a name they'd both refrained from uttering for over a decade, "As for Kate," he'd said, "there will come a day when you'll have to tell her my legacy is now her own." With that, she'd been handed a task that no one – even Bruce Wayne and Jacob Kane – would want. She didn't even have to reply. You could say she'd always known they'd come back around full circle and it'd be her and Kate against a force they'd fight against to the death – the world, or each other.

"I can't do it, Hay," Kate cries, finally breaking with the assistance of the alcohol in her blood. "I can't be Batman. I can't even be the female version of him. Some shoes just don't fit, no matter how much time you spend alone trying like hell to strap them on your feet." She'd spent plenty of time away training. But she'd always thought of herself as a soldier, not a hero. Even when her honesty got her kicked out of West Point, she was still a soldier. Her war was fought with alcohol, anger, and an endless stream of naked women. Truthfully, she doesn't remember most of it, but her body was fine-tuned into a machine that even the worst of her actions couldn't break. Her heart, though, was another matter completely. From where she is, in the darkest of nights, and even in the brightest of days, she knows she can never be as good as Batman.

"Kate," she cups the woman's face in her hands, "you don't have to be Batman. You can just be you." The woman falls away from her with a loud, almost irritated sigh, but Hayley isn't done, "Kate, you're not expected to be just like him."

She stands and walks to the door, "Hayley, you said yourself that I'm supposed to be him with boobs. How can I be like him? Do you know what all he did for this damn city?" Her voice raises a bit, "He's a fucking superhero, Hay!"

"I don't give a damn what he did for this city, Kate." She saunters to the woman as she makes her case, "He found an orphan in a damn crib after killing her parents. He took that child, renamed her, made her his ward, gave her a family, then ripped the closest member of that family away by sending her to the other side of the planet! Then, before he _conveniently_ stepped out of life, he thrust her into a business she knew very little about, and forced her back into a family who had almost forgotten she even existed. And now, that same child is forced to tell the most precious thing in her life that everything he'd been is what she's got to copy and become. That's who Batman was, Kate. That's what he's done for me. So as long as you do better than that, then you'll be a bigger, badder, better hero than he has ever been to me." Her anger spent, she softly adds, "You've always been Batwoman to me."

"Ah, shit, Hayley," she pulls the woman into her body and holds her closer than she ever dreamed she might, "I'm so sorry." Taking deep breaths of the woman in her arms, she lets herself feel the heat of anger towards the man who shoved them together after tearing them apart, "I'm so damn sorry."

"I just wish you knew your own strength." Hayley leans back to look into Kate's face, "I'm serious. You're stronger than you give yourself credit for, Katie."

She smiles wryly, "You're the only one who can get away with calling me that."

"That's because I'm special," she smiles from behind the shadow of her beanie. She knows her eyes are glowing, that's what they do when she feels something strongly.

"God damn right you are," she manages to utter as she's utterly locked in a gaze with those bright blue eyes, "I just wish you knew what you do to me."

"Tell me."

"I'm unstitched with you. My hems are ragged and unraveled. You unlock me without a key. I can fool anyone else. But then those eyes land on me and I swear, woman," she breathes, "I fall all over again."

"So now you admit to falling the first time," she asks with a tiny smile.

For a long moment she can only blink in a fog of disbelief. When she speaks, her voice is low, almost a growl, "How can you possibly not know?" She drags a thumb over Hayley's bottom lip even as she continues to stare into those eyes, completely lost, and yet, feeling as though she's been found, "You're my Kryptonite."


	3. Chapter 3

It's been years since Kate Kane graced the door of the Wayne building. It hasn't been quite that long, though, since she was graced with the company of the receptionist sitting behind the desk in the lobby. As she approaches, she turns on the charm, "Now there's a beautiful face I haven't seen in a while." She leans over the counter and speaks just above a whisper, "I'm realizing right now just how much I missed it." It's only when Tanya Carlisle looks up to reply that Kate notices the puffy eyes and fresh tears. Sensing trouble, she stiffens and speaks in a slightly elevated voice, "What's wrong?"

The woman swallows hard and dabs her eyes with the tissue she's strangling in her hand, "Why are you here?"

Baffled at receiving a question as an answer, Kate instantly loses her patience, "Get Hayley down here now or let me go up."

"If I could, I would," Tanya spits back. "The only person I'm willing to call for you is your father."

"Why the hell is my father here?"

Without answering, Tanya picks up the phone, "I'm sending Kate up." She doesn't wait for a response from the other end before hanging up, "Go. Get out of my face." Kate turns on her heel without a word. As an afterthought, Tanya she calls out, "Kate!" When they make eye contact, she gives the one and only demand she's ever given - and will ever give - to Katherine Kane, "You _will_ fix this."

Kate's jaw clinches as she nods just once before disappearing into the executive elevator. She punches the button and as the doors close, she tries to get her breathing under control. The machine isn't moving fast enough, giving her mind far too much time to imagine what type of shit show she's about to walk into, "Come on. Come on." Her heartbeat is so loud in her ears that it's almost deafening. The taste of blood is the only way she notices she's biting her lip, "Shit."

There's a clawing, aching, foreboding feeling in her body that tells her she's not ready for whatever it is she's about to face. Her breath starts coming in pants and she tries to slow it down. She hasn't talked to Hayley in over a week now. They'd agreed that she would think about whether or not she's going to take up the mantle left behind by Batman. Hayley had sworn she wouldn't reach out first – that was up to Kate. The decision had wracked her mind for days. She'd made her decision and the purpose in coming here today was to deliver the verdict. No matter what happens from this point forward, she's made her mind up and there will be no negotiations.

The elevator doors open and her father is waiting on the other side of them, "Well?" His voice is tense, his brows are furrowed, and Kate can tell there is something terribly, horribly, nightmarishly wrong.

Panic, cold and icy, sweeps through her when she looks around and doesn't see Hayley, "Where is she?"

"She's been waiting _days_ on an answer from you. Do you have one?"

They're facing each other with clenched fists. His tone easily ignites the anger that's always just below the surface of her skin, but she measures each of her next words, "Where in the hell is Hayley?"

With a muttered obscenity he turns away from her and storms to Hayley's office, "God damn it, Katherine, I don't have time for this shit."

Kate matches his stride but is still a step behind and will not be silenced, "Where is she, Jacob?"

Now in the middle of Hayley's office, he turns quickly and gets in his daughter's face, "Are you taking the job or not?"

His eyes are wild so he's not going to tolerate her much longer. Straight to the point, she answers with one word, "No."

"Shit!" He turns away to contain his anger, but then turns back again, "Then get the hell out!" Pointing, he adds, "There's nothing here for you. And there's no one waiting on you anymore. You're no damn good to her now."

There are about a million questions she wants to ask. Just as many insults are on the tip of her tongue but she knows she'll get nothing more from him now. Throwing open the door to the office, she's prepared to confront Natalie, Hayley's secretary, who is old enough to be her grandmother. Kate wasn't ready, though, to find the woman waiting on the other side of that door with a look on her face that could melt steel and a voice that could scare the Devil himself, "Check your phone."

"Why?" She asks, even as she pulls it out of her jacket pocket. There's a new text with a picture attached. When Kate opens it, her knees get weak and her stomach lurches, "Hayley." Her hands shake as her eyes water and she gasps, "Oh my God."

Bound and gagged, Hayley sits in a chair with a whiteboard absurdly resting in her lap. Kate's head starts to swim but she forces herself to study the photo through the lightheadedness. Hayley's right eye is almost swollen completely shut. Blood drops have made little tracks down her chin from a split bottom lip and a bloody nose. The woman's nose and cheek look as though they're at least cracked if not completely broken. Even with the injuries, past any fear she's surely feeling, those deep blue eyes are swirling with hate and vengeance. Her clothes are torn and there's blood on them from the various visible scratches and scrapes. It's clear that she's been tortured beyond anything she could ever deserve. Kate focuses on the words scrawled on the white board, "Save me, Batman."

Natalie, watching Kate's body shake from pure anger, speaks softer to her this time, "They took her from her house over three days ago after following her for almost a week." A red face looks up to meet hers and she continues, "They have beaten her for three days straight. But before they took her, she made me swear I wouldn't tell you until you came here on your own." When Kate opens her mouth to speak, Natalie holds her hand up to silence her, "No ma'am. Don't you say a word." Using a pointed finger to get her message through, she speaks now through clenched teeth, "You go back in that fucking office, tell your father you're going to save her, and then go kill every piece of shit who's put a hand on her. If you don't do this, Katherine, she'll never be yours."

With lowered eyes, Kate opens her mouth again, "I-"

"Do _not_ insult me by saying you don't want her. I've watched you two since you were going through puberty." She tilts Kate's face back up and studies her eyes, "They will kill her, Kate." The realization flashes like little lightning strikes behind the darkness of her eyes, "I will never forgive you if they do. But worse, you won't be able to live with yourself." Standing with her shoulders back and her spine straight, she sighs, "So swallow the bullshit you want to say that I'm not going to believe anyway, tell your pride to suck your left tit, give your father the same look you're giving me now, and then go get our girl – even if it means spilling an unholy amount of blood along the way. They called Batman out but I don't think they'll be ready for you." For a split-second, Natalie's mouth crooks into a smile, "When you walk through the door do you think they'll be sad you're not the cowardly man who might've kept them alive just to have something to do later?"

In spite of herself, Kate's smirk matches the older woman's, "When I get back, I'll tell you all about it."

"I'll be right there waiting for you girls," Natalie winks.

Kate walks back into the office as her father looks up from Hayley's desk, "I changed my mind." With every ounce of composure she can muster and a look of absolute determination, she growls, "Tell me _everything_ you know."


	4. Chapter 4

Relief washes over Jake Kane as he stands, "That's my girl." He walks to the bookshelves lining one wall of the office and activates the lever that opens the hidden door behind them. With a knowing smile thrown over his shoulder, he motions, "Follow me. It's time to try the suit on."

As she follows her father into the darkness of the hidden sanctuary, she speaks to Hayley in the privacy of her own thoughts, "Hang in there, Hay. I may not know what the hell I'm doing or how the hell I'm going to pull this off, but there will be no stopping me. You will be safe if it's the last thing I ever do. You're the strongest person I know, Hayley. Don't give up on me. I'm coming, baby."

Elsewhere, in the dark, Hayley's eyes open as much as they can. The silence around her is deafening even though her mind is flooded with the sound of Kate's voice. The fear that had worked it's way into her being is freshly pushed down by the words. The vow makes her back straighten as a wicked smile spreads painfully slow across her lips. If anyone were around to see them, her eyes brighten under the hood she's wearing. She responds to Kate in her mind, "I know you're coming. I feel you more now than ever before. And because you've accepted the role you were given, I've got a little secret to share with you."

Her father is talking to her but all of a sudden her ears no longer hear him. The air is filled with the sound of Hayley's voice. She stops him with a hand gesture, "Wait. Dad." Her brain reels and the dizziness comes over her in waves, "What the fuck?" Steadying herself by pressing a hand against the nearest wall, she gasps, "I can hear her!"

For a moment, Jake almost lets the tears go, "Thank you, God." He catches himself just in time, though, and remains silent as his daughter gets her first glimpses of what it means to be Batwoman. There are so many things that he's wanted to tell her, but until the events unfold as they're meant to, there's no way he can prepare her for the change. Bruce told him she'd be imbued with powers and strengths they could only imagine. And when Bruce sat him down and told him how Hayley fit into the picture, Jake laughed heartily at him. When the man didn't laugh along, it dawned on Jake that the two women have a connection mere words can't really describe or explain. He watches the emotions snake around his daughter's body as her eyes take on a far-away look.

A room, vaguely familiar but still elusive, grows up around Kate in her mind's eye. Somehow she knows she's watching the past as though she'd been a part of it. Hayley arrives home and changes clothes. Kate watches as she makes herself dinner while yelling at the basketball game on TV. When the woman sits down on her couch to eat, Kate reaches out to touch her but, like a mist, her fingers go right through the vision. Disappointed but attentive, she watches as Hayley finishes eating, turns the TV off, and pulls something up on her phone. The blue eyes that she's always been mesmerized by water and Kate wonders what's making the woman unhappy. Transfixed, she watches as Hayley begins to outright cry. The sobs shake her shoulders and break Kate's heart. She struggles with the urge to hold her and take away the pain.

Hayley speaks softly to her phone, "I miss you so much. I need to be strong but, until you're ready, I'll only be half as strong as I could be. I know it's hard to give up an idea of perfection for the reality of imperfection. I know you're scared. I am, too." Curiosity gets the best of her and Kate walks around to look at Hayley's phone. She gasps as the woman continues to speak to a photo of the two of them together, "You're unsure of what you're capable of but I can't stress to you just how much faith I have in you. You trust me so implicitly, without questioning if I'm strong enough. I wish you'd believe in yourself that much. Soon, I will be asked to trust you with my life. Later, you will be required to trust in me just that much." Kate's heart aches when Hayley strokes the image on her phone, "Katie, I would trust no one else on this planet with my life other than you. Not Bruce. Not Batman. Not your father. No one but you. Always you. Only you." Hayley yawns, having tired herself with the release of emotions, "Remember that I trust you. Trust yourself. And I'm waiting." When the last sentence is spoken, Hayley looks up into her face as though she can see Kate standing there, "I love you, Katherine Kane."

Quicker than the images appeared, they slip away and she's back in the sanctuary with her father, gasping for air and groping to keep Hayley's face with her, "No! Hayley! I'm here!" She fights the urge to vomit as she sinks down to her knees, "What was that, daddy?"

"Oh, darling, I wish I could explain it to you but I'll do my best," he sits and pulls the woman into his arms as she cries, "Souls are created individually. Before they can take on a human form, they must be split in two. When the two bodies meet and the souls recognize each other, they must make a decision to join again or to walk away." Stroking her hair and remembering his wife, he sighs, "Very few ever really commit to being together in life the way they are joined in spirit. But my God, Kate," he smiles at the memories, "when they do come together, it's magical."

"So," she looks up at her father's face, "you're saying Hayley and I are soul mates?"

"Yes, as best as I can tell, you are. At least, that's the way I choose to explain it." He laughs, "But what do I know? I'm just a dude."

She takes a moment to consider what he's told her before speaking again, "It was like she was right there. Just as though I could reach out and feel her the way I feel you."

Nodding, he smiles, "Did it scare you?"

"No," she answers. "But it did hurt when she was gone."

Wiping a stray tear off his daughter's face, he sighs, "I know that pain. And I'm sorry you have to feel that. But don't let possible pain keep you from certain happiness, even if it's temporary, or hard to understand, or scares you a bit. You both have powers you know nothing about because they don't get revealed until you've committed yourself to each other in some fashion. Just like you, she's not just a woman. You're Kate _and_ Batwoman."

Kate doesn't even bother trying to hide her shock, "So she's Hayley and someone else?"

"Yes," he smiles. "Bruce renamed her when he took her in all those years ago. Her full name is Hayley Raine Ilsabeth Kane."

"Why did he name her that?"

"Her father was known as Storm. So that's where Raine comes from. Her mother's name was Ilsabella. And she'd been named Bethany. He merged the two to honor her mother. Then he chose Hayley for reasons he never revealed to me."

"Ok, but what's her street name? I'm Batwoman, she's…"

Her voice, when it comes, is still shocking to Kate, "Hurricane."

"Hayley?" She looks around even though she knows the woman's not in the room.

"My initials are H. R. I. Kane."

Kate looks at her father, "Why didn't he make her a Wayne?"

"You can ask me. He can't hear me, but I'm still here."

The blush on her cheeks can't be helped, "Sorry. Why did he make you a Kane?"

"Because he knew that I'd outlive him. And until then, he didn't want me to have to explain how Bruce Wayne had a child but never had a pregnant wife. Plus, since your parents are my Godparents, we wouldn't have to worry about changing my name to match." She can almost hear Hayley smile, "Plus Hurricane is so much cooler than Hurriwayne."

When she laughs, the sound echoes against the walls, "Yes, I can see your point." The lump in her throat is hard to swallow but she manages to ask, "Are you okay?"

"Now that I know you're coming, yes."

"I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you, Hay."

The woman admonishes Kate softly, "Hush, woman. If you were meant to be there, you'd have been there. If I had been meant to fight off my captors, I wouldn't be here in the dark hidden under a hood and bleeding everywhere." She pauses a moment, "Oh stop with the wincing. Every breath I take now is making me stronger. By the time you figure out where the hell I am, I might even be able to kick your ass."

That small joke, told to make her feel better, actually makes her feel invincible. She manages to smile wickedly as she quips, "Don't you threaten me with a good time, Hayley Kane!"


End file.
